Battles End
by letgo
Summary: Battle Royale, after it's all said and done. AU


Shuya Nanahara gazed out the window of the schoolroom. After everything that had happened back on the boat, he felt tired. All his injuries had healed by now, and since Noriko had died of quickly succumbed to septicemia just a few hours after Shogo's death, he had been named the winner of the Program. All this had happened two years ago and he had yet to return to the town he had grown up in. He could not bear seeing the looks on everyones' faces.

Would they be happy to see him? Or, would parents be mad that he had survived and not their child? These thoughts had been running through his head for two years now. Surprisingly, he did not see anyone's deaths in his dreams. By now, the whole experience did feel like it had been one horrible, terrifying nightmare. If it were not for the scars he carried on both his body and soul, Shuya might believe that it had been a dream.

"Hey, Seven-bozu!" One of his new classmates called out to him. Shuya turned his head, acknowledging the nickname. It did bother him a little to be called Seven because it reminded him so much of his life before the Program. Luckily, no one had called him Wild Seven, yet. Then again, he wasn't known as an athlete at this school. Sure, he was somewhat athletic but unlike his last school, he was never one of the first picks and no one knew how good he had been.

"Why are you so quiet?" Asked that same classmate. Shuya frowned for a moment before he remembered that this girl was Maho Tanabe. She was a loud and curious girl who was probably the closest person Shuya would consider a friend. She had been the first one to talk to him when he had arrived at the school last year. "Is something big on your mind?" She wondered, putting her face in his. He jumped back a little, shocked.

"Nothing, Tanabe-chan," he mumbled. She just stared at him, a look of disbelief written on her face. "Something's up with you, Seven-bozu," Maho-chan responded. Shuya sighed, turning his gaze back to the window. How could she know that this day was the two-year anniversary of Nobu's death?

"So what is it?" Her voice broke through his thoughts. Shuya ignored her as he kept gazing out the classroom window. Something had caught his eye, something bright yellow. He realized he was looking at a girl's jacket. The thing about that jacket, though, was that it was stained with blood.

Shuya shook his head as if clearing the thought from his mind. Looking again, the blood was gone and the jacket was just a plain, yellow jacket. Still, it did seem awfully familiar but he could not place where he had seen something so bright a yellow before. "What? Do you like Chii-chan?"

He turned his head back, facing Maho-chan who was watching his face closely. "What did you say?" Shuya questioned. She sighed, acting annoyed while she asked her question again. "No," he began after she was done, "but I feel like I've seen her jacket before, though I don't know where."

"Oh. So, who do you like, Seven-bozu?" Shuya did not answer but rather, turned back to the window. He had only liked two girls, Kazumi Shintani when he had been pretty carefree back at Shiroiwa Junior High, and Noriko Nakagawa. It had only been after Noriko died that he realized how he cared for her.

As he watched students walk and run to their classrooms, it being the beginning of the day and he early, Shuya felt a sense of deja vu. There was a group of girls laughing as they went to their class; a couple totally involved in their own world as they sat on the school steps. A group of athletic guys were bouncing a basketball as they traded friendly insults. It was just like he was two years' younger, all his scars lifted from his soul.

"Looks like we got a new girl," Maho-chan's voice once more interrupted his thoughts, bringing him back from the world outside that he had been observing. "She's pretty cute," his friend added. Shuya gave a little smile. Normally, girls would not call other girls cute but Maho-chan did not care at all about what other girls were like. She really was, he thought, a different class of girl.

Whirling so that he could see who his friend was speaking about, Shuya felt like something big was about to happen. The new girl's face was blocked by Tominaga-sensei. She spoke softly so he could not hear her voice.

"What's your name?" Maho-chan called out. The girl craned her neck around Tominaga-sensei's body and Shuya felt his heart stop. He froze, shocked at who this girl was. Apparently by the way she just stared back at him, she recognized him as well. She opened her mouth to say something but no words came out. Maho-chan, who had followed the girl's gaze back to her friend, opened her mouth again, saying, "You know her, Seven-bozu? She come from your old school or something?"

The girl's mouth quirked upwards at the nickname. So, Shuya Nanahara had the nickname Seven-bozu here, she thought. Somehow, she continued, that doesn't surprise me. After all, his family name is **Nana**hara. Though, I get the feeling that he hasn't been called Wild Seven yet.

"Yeah," he answered Maho-chan's question. "We were in the same 3rd year class."

"Really?" Maho-chan began. "You think she's stalking you or something? Creepy." Maho-chan had a huge grin pasted on her face. Shuya shook his head, knowing that there was no way anyone from that class could be after him. Yet, he could not see how she could be alive. He was the only one left of the class, or so he thought. Right at that moment, Shuya wondered if she was a ghost. How else could she be alive? Though that did not explain how the others could see her. She left the sensei and walked towards him and Maho-chan.

"You look well, Shuya," she began. "Especially after everything."

He nodded, adding, "You don't look to bad yourself. How did you?" He didn't finish the question. She knew though. How could she not?

"I collapsed. But I didn't die," she answered, keeping the fact that they had both participated in the Program a secret. "One of _sensei's_," she put emphasis on the word sensei, "friend's found me."

"Oh," was all Shuya had to say in response. "Well, I hope things go well for you, Mitsuko. Just, please don't stab me in the back."

She smirked and replied, "I'll try not to."

* * *

A/N: I wrote this for a book report. As you can tell, it's an alternate ending to the book. I dunno why I chose to write it this way, but I did and I kind of like it. Though, I will say that it was originally Takako Chigusa, Female #13, who I had planned on coming back. She got a kind of cameo though.

I own nothing in this fic.


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